122 countries adopt global treaty banning nuclear weapons

A global treaty banning nuclear weapons was adopted at the United Nations on Friday despite opposition from nuclear powers Britain, France and the United States, which said it disregards the reality of dealing with international security threats such as North Korea.

The treaty was adopted by a vote of 122 in favour with one country — North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) member The Netherlands — voting against, while Singapore abstained.

None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons — the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — took part in the negotiations or the vote.

Even Japan — the only country to have suffered atomic attacks, in 1945 — boycotted the talks as did most Nato countries.

Loud applause and cheers broke out in a UN conference hall following the vote that capped three weeks of negotiations on the text providing for a total ban on developing, stockpiling or threatening to use nuclear weapons.

Within hours of its adoption, the United States, Britain and France rejected the treaty and said they have no intention of joining it.

“This initiative clearly disregards the realities of the international security environment,” the UN ambassadors from the three countries said.

“This treaty offers no solution to the grave threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear programme, nor does it address other security challenges that make nuclear deterrence necessary,” they said in a joint statement.

DISARMAMENTNorth Korea marked a worrying milestone in its drive to develop nuclear weapons when it tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile this week.

Nuclear powers argue their arsenals serve as a deterrent against a nuclear attack and say they remain committed to gradual approach to disarmament outlined in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The decades-old NPT seeks to prevent the spread of atomic weapons but also puts the onus on nuclear states to reduce their stockpiles.

‘SAFER WORLD’Impatience however is growing among many non-nuclear states over the slow pace of disarmament as are worries that weapons of mass destruction will fall into the wrong hands.

Led by Austria, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and New Zealand, 141 countries joined in drafting the treaty that they hope will increase pressure on nuclear states to take disarmament more seriously.

Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland voted in favour as did Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Kazakhstan and many African and Latin American countries.

“We have managed to sow the first seeds of a world-free of nuclear weapons,” Costa Rica’s ambassador, Elayne Whyte Gomez, the president of the UN conference that negotiated the treaty, said.

MASS DESTRUCTIONThe International Committee of the Red Cross hailed it as a “historic step towards delegitimising” nuclear weapons and declared the adoption “an important victory for our shared humanity.”